UPDATED: Apr 2, 2024 3:56 AM EDT
Synthetic dollar project Ethena has opened airdrop claims for its governance token (ENA), the project announced on X. This will be 5% of the total supply of 15 billion, with 750 million tokens distributed to eligible users.
The project noted that the token will be listed on several centralized exchanges starting at 4 a.m. EST.
The airdrop claim follows Ethena’s participation in the shard campaign, an early participant rewards program that allows participation via a referral link.
Research and development company Ethena Labs is backing the USDe stablecoin, also called an “internet bond” and a “synthetic dollar.”
In February, it raised $14 million in a strategic funding round at a valuation of $300 million. The round was co-led by Dragonfly and BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes’ family office, Maelstrom.
Unlike conventional stablecoins, USDe uses a unique mechanism that does not rely on direct fiat or asset backing. These include hedging derivative positions against collateral held by the protocol and an arbitrage system for minting and redeeming USDe, aimed at maintaining the peg to the US dollar.
In other words, it uses strategies such as shorting ether futures while simultaneously making returns by staking with Ethereum validators. This generates a revenue for the protocol that is shared back to stablecoin holders.
